Part of my wonderful schedule these days is supervising cow milkage for Kosher purposes. It's okay work, quite easy (usually), yet ridiculous hours. I'm glad it's there as of now, but I eventually I'd like to move on. Having a camera handy makes it a bit easier. These were all taken a few weeks ago within a 5 mile radius of the farm. I really should take more pictures of the actual farm. Would be a nice challenge.
Mamiya 45mm, HP5 film.
And here we are. After going on a blogging diet for the past few weeks (yet the blog has not lost any weight. I my have to rethink this one), I have a whole bunch to post over the next week or so. Keep your eyes posted.
This loverly family here was (and since has) moving to New York and wanted one last session before the upheaval (I think they said something about wanting to get away from earthquakes). You may remember them from a few months back.
It's a Friday, so I got to help in the kitchen or with the kids (or both, being that the kids like hanging out in the kitchen, but only when we're there and there's lots to be done).
And we all say: Amen.
As you may well know I love photography. All types. And while I say I'm a "natural light photographer" it is more of a "I-don't know-how-to-properly-use-flash-photographer" (that's just way too long and doesn't sound nearly as professional as the first option). Confiding as such to my photographer friend who works for this hotshot studio in Los Angeles, he offered to offer me help out in a shoot he was doing. It was a cover shot for the Soulwise magazine put out by the ever-magnificent Shmuel Marcus and Co..
And I learnt quite a bit. Mostly that studio equipment is ridiculously heavy. Shoots take time (a lot). And lighting is not that complicated (though lighting for constantly changing conditions like a wedding reception is a bit harder).
With me was my trusty Mamiya and a 45mm lens (and not so trusty light meter). All shot on HP5, processed at walmart and scanned on my Epson 700 (I got to figure out this dust issue). Oh, and for the record these are all the photos I took there. No masterpieces (that wasn't the point) but out of 9 shots, 9 were in focus and fairly well exposed (well...). I like that.
Most of the shots came out a bit underexposed, I don't think my meter (the built in one) likes bright lights. Lesson learned.
Who's who:
Enjoy.
In my last post I discussed my decision to sell my Hassy and pick up a new film camera. Mamiya 645 Pro is the name. Mamiya is a very respected name in the medium format camera world (recently they merged with Phase One to produce the most advanced and modular digital medium format system available). They've been around for quite a while and were for a while the most common name in the medium format camera world. 645 is the size of the negative. 6 cm x 4.5 cm, which is approximately 3 times the size of a 35mm negative. Mamiya also made a twin lens camera (6x6) and a 6x7 slr called a rb67 (later the rz67). The "rb" part stands for "rotating back" so you can just turn the back instead of the whole camera to switch from landscape to portrait or vice versa. The 67 was probably the most common studio camera, giving a huge 6x7 negative. The camera though was h u g e, so working in the field required either a bodybuilder or insanity. The 645 was (for many) the best combination of large negative and portability. Later on they also made a autofocus version and kept on updating it until its current incarnation as the Phase One DF. Mine is the Pro version. Has a metering prism (and even autoexposure!) and a power winder. Pretty nifty. Later on they also made two rangefinders, a Mamiya 6 (6x6) and Mamiya 7 (6x7). The Mamiya 7 is purported to have two of the best lens ever produced, the 80mm f/4 and the 43mm 4.5. Drool.
A while ago I wrote about my "normal" woes: Finding a fast high quality normal lens was causing ulcers of the mind. The Mamiya has a 80mm 1.9 which in 35mm terms is a 50mm 1.1875 and pretty sharp wide open. Yay!
The build quality leaves much to desire, reminding one of Canon's Rebel series. A lot of plastic, parts, screws. A huge step downwards in that department from the Hasselblad.
What I like:
What's not so cool:
My hit rate has gone from 28% to 86%!! Yippee! For some reason even at 1.9 this baby is much easier to focus than both my Hassy and my Nikon D700.
Here are my first two rolls (the first was finished at an event so I didn't include that). Every single picture. The only one that's not a keeper is the last one, and that was due to my lens getting stuck (I thought it was sand, but I sent it in and they said it was an issue with the gears...), so I was focussing by moving the whole camera. Still having issues underexposing but i'm getting better. All are with 80mm, mostly at 1.9 with a few at 2.8.
The first roll is a generic B/W 100 roll developed @ Walmart and scanned by me. The second (Kodak Portra 160 NC) was developed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab in LA (I'm scared to scan color. See my lest post for why).
Not bad eh?
What say you?
It is with a little regret and much fanfare that I bid adieu to my short lived stint with my Hasselblad. I've recently moved on to different pastures with my film life. We leave on good terms and hope to remain friends. For all I know I'll be picking up another in the future. But that future is not yet (futures are never yet).
What I'll miss:
So, ask you my avid reader, why am I saying goodbye? Because (as you must have learned in preschool, unless you're a poor homeschooled child (that's an inside joke, though I'm not sure how inside)) that's what you do when you take leave of someone or something. And why am I taking leave? Ahhh now you're asking all the right questions.
Why I'm saying goodbye:
What now? Stay tuned (next post).
I spent the last week scanning in a bunch of film. Many out of focus (see above) and most were underexposed. Why? Because I tend to underexpose. That's why I wanted film in the first place to start nailing my exposures. And when I see that exposure after exposure is off, it makes me get my act together and start paying attention.
Here are a bunch of the semi-decent exposures (and some indecent ones) from my now-on-craigslist Hasselblad 500 C/M. Most of them were with generic B&W film (100 or 400), some with slide and other with color negative. Boy are those color negatives hard to scan! (hence all the color issue at the end)
Enjoy.
Much changes in a year. Last year I documented the Silver Gan Israel Summer Festival. 'twas fun and all, but I remember leaving the event thinking "wow, I really have no clue how to meter". I am proud to say that while I still have a long way to go before I'm a certified meter man (it's the male version of a meter maid), I at least know generally what my camera is going to do in a given situation and use that to my advantage. I'm also more on the lookout for interesting compositions and waiting for the action to come.
I have gear issues (amongst others). More on that another time. And my sensor is filthy. My elbows creak and my beard is making strange noises.
